Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Aug;29(8):1270-1282.
doi: 10.1177/0956797618763090. Epub 2018 May 23.

Language Skills, but Not Frequency Discrimination, Predict Reading Skills in Children at Risk of Dyslexia

Margaret J Snowling  1   2 , Debbie Gooch  3 , Genevieve McArthur  4 , Charles Hulme  5
Affiliations

Language Skills, but Not Frequency Discrimination, Predict Reading Skills in Children at Risk of Dyslexia

Margaret J Snowling et al. Psychol Sci. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

This study evaluated the claim that auditory processing deficits are a cause of reading and language difficulties. We report a longitudinal study of 245 children at family risk of dyslexia, children with preschool language impairments, and control children. Children with language impairments had poorer frequency-discrimination thresholds than controls at 5.5 years, but children at family risk of dyslexia did not. A model assessing longitudinal relationships among frequency discrimination, reading, language, and executive function skills showed that frequency discrimination was predicted by executive skills but was not a longitudinal predictor of reading or language skills. Our findings contradict the hypothesis that frequency discrimination is causally related to dyslexia or language impairment and suggest that individuals at risk for dyslexia or who have language impairments may perform poorly on auditory processing tasks because of comorbid attentional difficulties.

Keywords: auditory deficits; executive skills; frequency discrimination; language disorder; risk of dyslexia.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Structural equation model showing relationships among latent factors describing frequency discrimination (FD), reading, language, and executive function (EF) skills. All parameter estimates are standardized. Double-headed arrows represent correlations, and single-headed arrows represent factor loadings or regression coefficients. Rectangles represent observed variables, and ovals represent latent variables. Parameter estimates in parentheses for the model excluded the group with language impairment. HTKS = head, toes, knees, and shoulders test; REV = reversal; SWR = single-word reading. The following covariances are not shown in the model: FDRev3T2 – FDRev1T2 = .46 (.55); FDRev4T2 – FDRev1T2 = −.82 (−.59); FDRev3T3 – FDRev1T3= −.50 (−.25); SRep2 – SRep3 = .64 (.64); SenSt2 – SenSt3 = .20 (.32); Reg2 – Reg3 = .25 (.18); Irreg2 – Irreg3 = −.39 (−.31); Vocab2 – Vocab3 = .16 (.14).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bishop D. V. M., Hardiman M. J., Barry J. G. (2012). Auditory deficit as a consequence rather than endophenotype of specific language impairment: Electrophysiological evidence. PLOS ONE, 7(5), Article e35851 doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035851 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boets B., Ghesquière P., van Wieringen A., Wouters J. (2007). Speech perception in preschoolers at family risk for dyslexia: Relations with low-level auditory processing and phonological ability. Brain and Language, 101, 19–30. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2006.06.009 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Boets B., Wouters J., van Wieringen A., Ghesquière P. (2006). Auditory temporal information processing in preschool children at family risk for dyslexia: Relations with phonological abilities and developing literacy skills. Brain and Language, 97, 64–79. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2005.07.026 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Breckenridge K. (2008, August). Attention and executive function in Williams syndrome and Down’s syndrome. Paper presented at the Development of Executive Functions Workshop, University of Oxford, England.
    1. Breier J. I., Fletcher J. M., Foorman B., Klaas P., Gray L. C. (2003). Auditory temporal processing in children with specific reading disability with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 46, 31–42. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2003/003) - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources